A devastated family has turned heartbreak into a helping hand through a South African school-feeding program known as the SAM Project. The non-profit organization was launched in memory of 16-year-old Sam Eves who was stabbed to death in Valleycliffe last March.
Following the horrific event, Sam's father Colin Eves said the family needed to get away.
"We wanted to do something somewhere rather than sit around and be miserable," he said.
Colin and his wife Sandra took their two boys Nigel and Buster on a long flight out of B.C. The family landed in the South African country of Zambia where a friend invited them to join his medical relief work.
They began working with a Christian group distributing food to communities and schools.But soon, the family realized the handouts were only a small drop in the bucket for a country strapped by poverty.
They started developing their own initiative, the SAM project, which stands not only for their son's name but for Sustainability through Agriculture and Micro-enterprises."We invited two villages to take part in the project to see if we could devise a model to help them devise an educational food program," Eves said. "The whole idea is by establishing some small economic activity in the villages that their citizens can learn new skills."He said these skills could in turn generate a cash surplus to supplement school feeding programs.
The project is currently active in three villages in southern Zambia, where it has led to a number of infrastructure improvements such as the development of water systems, seedbeds and drip irrigation systems. Each village has also received an HIV/AIDS awareness workshop.
Although Eves said he left Squamish without a plan, he returned four months later committed to making the SAM Project work. He and his wife Sandra are currently attending a conference in Florida where they are learning more about sustainable agriculture in Third World countries. In March, with the anniversary of Sam's death approaching, the couple plans to return to Zambia for two to three months.
Sam's brothers are also taking part in the project. They help manage a Facebook site dedicated to the cause, which already has 673 members. Buster and Nigel recently made a presentation about the SAM Project to Howe Sound Secondary's grad committee. Soon, more information will be available online at www.thesamproject.ca.
Even as he describes the program's success, Eves voice is quiet and filled with sadness. He said it is still difficult to be in Squamish with so many reminders of Sam.
His said when he is in Zambia he tried to be there for people dealing with their own pain."Most the people we are helping fall under that sad category."
